Sams Teach Yourself Visual C# 2005 in 24 Hours Complete Starter Kit [With CDROM]

I have read many computer books in the past. This one has got to be ONE of the BEST learning book. It teaches you how to navigate in the Microsoft Visual C# environment, not to be afraid to experiment and make the best use of the interface. The text are concise. The examples are great for learning. The screenshots are accurate. My book came with the Microsoft Visual C# Express CD (no need to download). Money Well-Spent. Knowledge well-learned. No Pain. Just Gain. I wish the author Mr. James Foxall would also write a book for the "Microsoft Visual Web Developer".

Foxall takes what you need, takes out what you don't and packs it all in this book. You won't become an expert in C# in 24-hours, but you will certainly know you way around the language and the development environment by reading this book. From there, you can either learn by doing or pick up a more advanced book and go from there. The author takes the GUI development road and teaches you by example. A frame here, a timer there, event handling, some C# programming and you got yourself a handy little application that gives you a flavor of what it means to use Visual C#. If you have no previous programming experience, or you are simply interested in C#, this is the text you want to pick up and finish in a weekend. I have used Java for a number of years, so the transition to C# was much easier for me. This book specially focuses on the Development Environment and such things as how you go about setting up a project or how you debug your application using the built-in debugging facility. Microsoft Visual Studio has improved greatly in the recent years, but that also means that it has gotten more complicated to use over the years. Foxall breaks down the "barrier to use" and walks the readers thru how things are setup and configured. The book is also accompanied with MS Visual C# Express Edition, which is a watered down version of Visual Studio but it has everything you need to get started with the development environment. Author delves into some more advanced features of the .Net framework towards the end of the book and talks about how everything fits together. This is a great "next step" for those of you who will go on to do use C# for more advanced projects. All and all, this is one great beginner book. There are plenty of examples and tips throughout the book that will benefit anyone who is interested in the C# language or the .Net development environment as a whole.

I've been through MANY introductory C# books over the past few weeks, including online and video tutorials. So far, this title is the best of the bunch. It's very interactive and more importantly has exercises at the end of each hour; Very easy to read, even humorous at times. If you DONT want to spend a semester's-worth of time learning C# then get this book. Otherwise, I'd suggest Prentiss-Hall's version; but be warned, it's designed as a 2 semester college lvl book.

If you're an experienced programmer that is wanting to learn Visual C# as another language then this is probably not the best book for you. If you're totally new to pgramming this book fits well. Foxall does a fantastic job of teaching you skills gradually. He doesn' thit you all at once with the concepts and theories of object oriented programming and so forth, but he introduces it to you little by little over each chapter so that it's much easier to learn. You learn how to write practical and useful programs, which is what allows new programmers to keep their interestin the subject.

For those who know nothing about C# and want to dive right in, this is the book for you. Mr. Foxall does a great job explaining the concepts in his book without oversaturating you.